The Lost Boy
by Julia Vaughn
Summary: They both knew it. She had to grow up sometime...
1. Chapter 1

Peter looked through the clear glass of the window, fumbling for the handle. He smiled. It wasn't locked. It never was. He snuck in and crept past the two boys sharing the nursery, towards the familiar head of curly blonde tresses. "Wendy! Come on! Wake up!" He whispered so as not to wake up her brothers. She slept soundly, though, and didn't wake up as he had asked. The boy grinned impishly and very gingerly picked up the covers and slid in next to her. "You know, with all the hype around getting into a girl's bed, I would think it would be a bit more challenging." He said to Wendy as she turned over, saw him and jumped out of the bed as if it were on fire.

"Peter!" She hissed, "It isn't proper! What in the heavens are you doing?"

"Something not of heaven, my dear!" He giggled at his own joke. At her horrified face, he mended his statement to, "I was trying to wake you up! Come on, let's go!" he chided impatiently.

"Oh, Peter, where ever are we going?" she grinned, grabbing her coat. It was a game they played often. He smiled back and replied,

"Off to Neverland! Here we go!" they both laughed quietly and recited "Faith, trust, and just a little bit of pixie dust!" and laughed again, as they jumped off the balcony and towards the second star to the right…

* * *

"Oh no, Peter! Not the mermaid lagoon again! They're absolutely dreadful!" Wendy declared. Her and Peter were deciding where to go, as they had already been everywhere at least once.

"I don't see what the problem is! The mermaids are great!" Peter responded.

"They tried to _drown_ me!" she huffed.

"For the last time, they were only teasing!" He lifted his hat, which was resting on his face, to look at her and lied back down on his tree limb. They were in the forest, and hanging on a tree like children.

"I think the only reason you go is for the attention." Wendy smiled knowingly.

"Whaddya mean 'attention'!" Peter started defensively, sitting up straight as a post.

"Oh, you know," she said coyly, "How they play with their hair, and they smile, and they giggle at all of your horrible jokes…" Wendy smiled and demonstrated each of the tactics as she listed them, enjoying Peter's reaction as his face contorted into dawning recognition, and then disinterest as he laid back down.

"Fine. How about, oh! Um, there's this cave, but it sings!" he said excitedly.

"Howling Rock. We went. " She answered dejectedly. "Peter-" She opened her mouth to speak but nothing would come out. "The Lost Boys' Tree House." Wendy sighed. "It isn't very far from here, and I haven't seen them in ages." She said, although the words she had almost said hung between them. The tension was breathable.

"That sounds fun." Peter replied awkwardly. She had come here every night for almost seven years, and her time was almost up. And they both knew. He smiled at her, but she could tell it wasn't real. Nothing here was.

"Alright. The tree house is that way right?" She pointed in the wrong direction, just to get Peter to say something.

"Gosh, Wendy! How many times!" He shook his head, jumped out of the tree and headed off in the right direction and grinned at her in that boyish way of his. Because that's what he was. A boy.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wendy!" shouted a chorus of 5-6 boys as she stepped through the door, "You're back! I told you guys she'd come back!" yelled Toodles. He ran up to her and flung himself around her as she hoisted him up to rest on her hip "I knew our mother would come back!" he whispered conspiratorially in her ear. She looked into his sweet, young face and smiled.

"Of course I came back! But would you look at this mess!" She scolded. There were weapons on the floor, toys in the beds and an odd assortment of animal skins lying around. "Oh, my heavens!" Wendy raised an eyebrow at Peter, who threw his hands up in the air as if to say, '_ Don't look at me!_' She turned back to the boys, who had the decency to look at least a bit sheepish. "I say we tidy up a bit!" Wendy resumed cheerfully.

"But-cleaning up's no fun!" declared a boy with a bear hat. "Yeah!" cheered a chorus of boys.

"But neither is living in your own mess!" she remarked.

"I'll help ya', Wendy!" Toodles added sheepishly, "But-"

"Yes?"

"Only if you sing us a song!"

"Yeah!" Said all the boys

"Now, now, I will only sing, if everyone helps!" Wendy looked at Peter, "And I mean everyone."

"Alright, alright! I help! But I get to choose the song!" Peter agreed reluctantly. Wendy laughed. He could be such a brat sometimes! The boys cheered and got to work.

A little while later, the hovel was clean and they all sat down and gathered around Wendy. She looked at Peter expectantly. "Well? Which song shall I sing for you?"

"You should sing the song you sang to them the first time you were here. The one about mothers." He told her. And so she did. Hearing Wendy sing was one of his favorite things to do with her. As he listened to her angelic voice, he wanted it. Like a child wants candy or like a girl wants a pretty doll. He wanted that voice to stay. Out of all the things he had seen come and go through Neverland, Peter wanted Wendy to stay the most. He realized he was staring and looked away quickly. When he looked back again, Wendy's cheeks were all pink. TigerLily's did that sometimes. He always wondered why. Maybe he would ask Tink.

"Alright, now, boys. Time for bed!" She clapped her hands to hurry them along.

"Aw, come on, Wendy! Tell us a story!" Peter asked. He couldn't help himself. Her stories were always perfect.

"Oh, alright." She replied. "Everyone get tucked in, and I'll tell you a story about a boy!"

"About a lost boy?" asked Slightly.

"The Lost Boy." She answered.

"Yay! Hooray! Story time!" They all cheered.

"_Once upon a time, there was a boy who would never grow up. He was happy for a long time. He was young, and carefree with no one else to think about. But, after a while, The Boy started to get lonely. So he went back to where the other children were. He convinced some of them to come with him, others he nabbed, but they would all forget eventually. Like he had forgotten. And he was happy again. He was still young, but now he had friends with him. He got lonely again, and went back, again, to where the children were. He was about to find more friends when he heard some one. A girl. She was telling a story to her brothers before bed, and he was entranced. He stayed at that window all night, listening to that story. And when he returned to his friends in the morning, he told them the story, and they too loved it, and wanted more. So he returned to the window again the next night; and the next; and the next. Until one night, his shadow got caught in the windowsill. He came back the next night to retrieve it, and was shocked when he found the girl had saved it for him! This time, as she was sewing it back to his foot, he asked her to come back with him, to be a mother, and tell stories to all the children she agreed, but only if her brothers could come too. They all four of them travelled back together. They were all happy, for a bit, these children, until one morning when the girl couldn't remember her mother's name anymore! She got scared, and told the children that it was time to go back home. The Boy wouldn't have it. He said that if they left, they could never return. The girl was hurt, for she had liked The Boy, and the island where he and the children lived, a great deal. But she needed to go, so The Boy apologized and took them home. She promised him that she would never forget him, and her promised her that he wouldn't let her. The girl grew up, and got betrothed, and The Boy came back. It was her last night in the nursery, and it was her last trip. The Boy again asked her to stay with him, as he did every night, and she again replied 'no'; because all children need to grow up at some point. Well, all except one. _

_The End."_ She finished and tucked each boy in, said goodnight and kissed them on the cheek. Well, all except one...


End file.
